The Importance of Creativity and Innovation

World Creativity and Innovation Day (WCID) is a United Nations International Day of Observation that was created to empower people to use new ideas, take unique approaches, and make the world a better place. WCID is celebrated on the April 21 each year and helps raise awareness about the importance of creativity and innovation in problem solving with respect to advancing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. While this day was recognized by the UN in 2017, it was founded in May of 2001 by Canadian Marci Segal and later expanded to World Creativity and Innovation Week (April 15-21) in 2006. WCID encourages the world to step outside the box and go beyond what is deemed “typical” to make positive lasting changes.

Creativity shows who we are and what we value. It fosters rich diversity, distinct culture, and supports social and economic growth. The creative economy is an evolving concept that builds on the relationship between human ideas, creativity, knowledge and technology. Creative industries are a highly transformative sector of the world economy in terms of employment generation, export earnings and income generation. Culture also plays an essential role in sustainable development as it becomes a source of identity for individuals and communities. Together, culture and creativity significantly contribute to social development through speech and understanding. According to the United Nations, culture and creativity account for 3.1 per cent of global GDP and 6.2 pewr cent of all employment. They have become crucial pieces of our economy by helping people come together, understand and celebrate each other. As people are able to imagine better futures, that vision slowly becomes reality.

However, now more than ever, creative industries are changing with the rise of AI use, specifically, AI “art.” This can include AI-generated pictures, music, videos (including animation) and literature. There are many downsides to this rise in AI use, such as artists losing jobs and AI stealing work without consent. According to an article by The Guardian, this isn’t simply the fact that AI lacks originality either, as that is also the case with most human-made art. The difference is with representation. What gives human-made art its unique value is not always the piece itselfm, but rather how it interprets human experience and showcases the process behind it. AI generated “art” attempts to conjure human creativity but fails because of the lack of connection between artists and consumers.

Another field that utilizes immense creativity is innovation. Here are some amazing Manitobans who invented products that have inspired and helped many people.

James Freer was a Manitoban farmer who is recognized as creating the first film in Canada. In 1897, he made “Ten Years in Manitoba” which showcased farm life and the Canadian Pacific Railway in order to promote immigration. He toured England with his film in 1898 and 1901 to encourage the British to come to Canada.

A few decades later, in 1950, a Winnipeg-born scientist named John A. Hopps would be one of the researchers to create one of Canada’s greatest medical innovations — a portable artificial external cardiac pacemaker. It was designed to send electric pulses to the heart, which caused the heart to contract and pump blood throughout the body. That same year it was successfully tested on a dog, and this invention has paved the way for the use of implantable pacemakers in humans.

In more recent times, Jeremy Matuszewski from Winkler created Razor’s Edge Concaves, which was named one of Time Magazine’s top inventions of 2025. Matuszewski is the founder and CEO of Thunderstruck Ag and was looking for a way to make combining more efficient for farmers. A concave is a device that sits under the rotor in a combine harvester to separate grains from the crop. Each type of crop requires a different concave, which takes time to switch. In 2023, he started working on a new concave design that would control how the material flowed through the machine and began launching the product in the beginning of 2025.

Both art and innovation are crucial aspects that make our species unique. The drive to create and express ourselves has been occurring for tens of thousands of years. These creative impulses have become qualities that make us who we are. Take this World Creativity and Innovation Day to challenge your own ideas, think imaginatively, and convey your perspective.

» Georgia Feng is a Grade 12 student at École secondaire Neelin High School.